Fed 2 light leak - first one ever!

[indridi]

I recently got my fed 2 off the bay, and I like it a lot, much better build quality than my monday-morning (or friday-afternoon) version of fed 5. But...

There is light leak. It is probably the same as described in this thread . I cleaned the insides (it vas _very_ dusty) and painted the entire curtain with black fabric paint (the curtain had some very small white debris on it, impossible to get off, might cause flare).

After this, I checked for light leak by placing it under a lamp for a minute or two, and then pressing the shutter button with the cap on. This revealed fogging like in the thread above. Pressing the shutter with the cap on, and then placing it under a lamp also revealed similar fogging (can't get to a scanner right now), so the light gets around both curtains. The fogging does not extend above or below the frame on the negatives, but fades out to the sides, indicating that it is indeed leakage from the front, and not through the back. No pinholes are visible.

I'm pretty sure the light is getting past the light baffles (probably both of them), as suggested in the thread above, but please comment on this, if you know better. But how do I fix it? Somehow, I don't like the idea of bending/reshaping things inside my (mostly) perfectly working camera...
My fed 5 has some "furry" seals on the baffles which the fed 2 doesn't have, could I use something like that? and where might one get such seals??

Hope this describes the problem in adequate, and to too much extent. Help appreciated.

regards
Indriði

 

[ZorkiKat]

First off, painting the entire curtain may not be a good thing to do. It will make the curtain blind heavier and denser, and can affect the way it travels. If you see a lot of cracks and general drying, it may mean that the curtain would need replacement. One crack fixed will soon lead to another crack found.

Then, you may not need to get flocked baffles too. Most light breaches around the baffles can be fixed by simply loosening the baffle bolts and repositioning the baffles. Move a tad closer to the blinds, or most likely, to one side so that they cover a good part of the rollers. The FED-2 was designed with unflocked baffles, and the only way to do this is really to move or reshape them. Having felt flocking on them may make the channel through which the shutter blinds traverse too narrow. This design may work for the FED-5, but may not on the FED-2.

And if youfeel that flocking the baffles are necessary, you can do this by taking the felt lip liners of discarded 35mm casettes.

 

[indridi]

First off, painting the entire curtain may not be a good thing to do.

hmm, yes, I thought of that, so I used very thin paint, probably too thin to fix pinholes, but the greyish debris isn't white/grey anymore, so I can take my mind of possible flare. At least the shutter seems to work, and I get properly exposed pictures, so I hopefully haven't ruined anything...

I will give repositioning or reshaping the baffles a try, on second thought, glueing some filt on them doesn't seem as simple as I thought.

thanks
Indriði